Strategies of Success: Holiday Shopping

What's your shopping strategy? Run around at the last minute?

Do you dread the malls? Hate trying to find the right gift for everyone?

Here's my strategy which has left me free of the shopping stress this year. I shop all year. As I go about the year, I check out interesting places and see if anything there might be the perfect thing someone on my gift giving list would like. So by the time Christmas comes or birthdays, I just go to my bag/box of goodies and pull out the appropriate gift.

This works really well for me especially since i'm not a big shopper. But I do travel around a bit and going places offers me opportunities to see unique stores. I'm a bit more interested in checking those places out because they might have things that will remind me of my time there. But usually I don't buy for me...I buy for someone else. And often there are great bargains to be found.

Even if you don't travel much in your life...and to be honest, most of my traveling is just driving trips around the New England area...expand your life a bit, see a little more of the world around and poke around in some the unusual shops/stores.

And start your holiday shopping for 2007 as soon as you've recovered from this holiday!

Strategies of Success: Holiday Strategies Part 1

The holiday season certainly presents its share of challenges. A friend of mine called and told me how disgusted she was with all the commercialism of the holidays. She was obviously stressed and focused on the negative aspects of this time ofyear. Although I certainly honor her feelings, it reminded me that this time of year is what wemake of it.

I know all the negative connections - the rushing around, the traffic, the exhaustion of trying to do everything after a busy day of work. But a few years ago, I changed the way I look at the holidays. I began to pay attention to the things that ony seem to happen during this time..things I know I miss when they're gone.

Like what you ask?

Like the lights on houses. I'm not crazy about darkness descending at 4 pm here in the NortheastUS but that means the lights come on earlier. And we have some pretty spectacular ones around.

I like that people make an extra effort to get together during the holidayas. Sure it's hectic but there's something fun about squeezing in all these visits.

I like the traditions. I like creating new ones. Here are two that I miss. When I was the drama director at my school, the members of the drama club would go Christmas caroling collecting money for a needy charity. I miss that. I tried a fewyears ago to go with some current students but only three showed up. We went anyway but we sounded pretty pathetic.

Another tradition I miss was when there were so many small children in my family that it made opening the presents at my parents house a total zoo. As the oldest sibling, I named myself Chief Elf. About 30 minutes before present opening time, I had a meeting of my elves...the children who were 5 and under. I gave them the game plan - the elf mission as it were. I would sit under the tree, they would bring me the presents. I would read the name on the tags and they would deliver each present to the proper recipient. They felt so important and it kept things a tad more sane. I miss that. The youngest elf is now a freshman in high school!

So for me, it's time to create a few new traditions.This has been a difficult year for me because I lost my best friend. But I will focus on all the great things that the season brings...the warm cozy coffee shop I'm writing in, the strategies class I created years ago in which current students are now paying good deeds forward.

So much to be grateful for and to enjoy...if we just give ourselves the chance...